THE SEX RESEARCHERS

In their Foreword, Masters and Johnson, the researchers of Human Sexual Response (1966) call this"" ..... a highly opinionated book"" that ""educates and entertains."" They are right. The education comes through all ten chapters, seven of which are devoted to the lives and works of sexologists, and therein lies much entertainment because some of the researchers were certainly cases themselves. Beginning with Havelock Ellis, who was low on performance but high on avid interest, we go on to Krafft-Ebing of whom little is ""known but much is speculated, especially the distasteful findings in his case records that seem to equate masturbators with mass rape murderers. Freud, of course and then there's T. van de Velde, the grand navigator of the nuptial couch, and on to Kinsey, the indefatigable statistician of ""Who Does What, When and With Whom."" Five women who contributed understanding to the ladies' share in love and sex are covered in a chapter, while Masters and Johnson's massive findings and measures are scaled down to a chapter-length glimpse. The opinion lies in the author's selections of studies to condense, most of them supporting his stated conviction that a society free of shame or guilt in all manner of sexual fulfillment would be happier, healthier and therefore stronger, especially evident in the positive cases of current participants in group sex.